Interesting projects

[Will S]

Hi everyone, I regularly check this post to see what type of interesting projects the T100 PLC's get used on.

Since things are slow tonight, I though I would ask what type of interesting projects you have used these PLC's for.

A couple of mine were as follows, a controller for a universal hydraulic servo and proportional valve tester, and as a supervisory controller on a large compost production plant.

Both of these applications have worked very well.  I still regularly add and modify the program for the compost plant.

Lets here from anyone with a unique and interesting use for these versatile PLC's.

Willpower100

[BLF_Electronics]

I am always interested in hearing about projects that other people are working on. I recently used the T100MD controller for a project that used a laser to read material thickness. The laser was mounted to a stationary table that had a stepper controlled slide that the material was clamped to. The entire system was tied to a computer with an HMI written with visual basic that downloaded the test and stepper motor parameters via a custom written driver via the rs232 port to the T100MD. The speed of the table was controlled by the T100MD via the stepper motor. The material thickness was also displayed on the HMI and material setup parameters were saved to a database file for easy reuse. The T100MD is an amazing controller for the money and I will be looking for more projects to use it on.

Brian Ferry

[Joel Moore]

We've used the T100MD in the following projects:

- A vacuum platen/press system that's used for assembling layers of flex circuits and foam adhesives.

- A large jig for clamping long planks of wood and then actuating up to 8 biscuit joiners.  The planks are used in making floating docks.

And we've also started using them in our product line (semi-automated BGA rework equipment), initially to add some enhanced functionality (stepper control, additional I/O) but soon we plan to completely replace the custom microcontroller that we've relied on up to now.  We may even move to replace the Opto22 UltimateIO system we use in our higher end machines.

[will steed]

An interesting little project I am now working on involves a T100 plc and a 4X20 display.  I have found that I quickly use up all of the available display area on the lcd, so I am working on a subprogram that will scroll through multiple screens every 5 seconds.  When a pushbutton is pressed you can select which screen you want to view/modify.

I had though about going to a more expensive display using modbus, but if I can do the same thing with the cheaper 4X20, then I am ahead of the game.

[bastienl]

I just finished a nice little project using the T100MD
I have the com1 port conected to a gas analyser. I have the T100MD send a query message to the gas analyser which inturn sends back an ascii message with analyser status and gas concentration. I then query the ascii message and extract the gas concentration. I use the DM

• area to store this stuff and have a Modbus RF  transmitter transmit everything to a PLC(Quantum) a few kM away. The only negative thing I have to say about the TriPLC is the heat dispersed by the regulator should be looked into.

[Derek McFarland]

I am considering using some form of controller to replace the controller on my hot tub.